End and Beginning: On the Generations of Cultures and the Origins of the West (European Perspectives: a Series in Social Thought and Cultural Ctiticism)

Another topic of interest for Borkenau was engaging in an intellectual critique of Toynbee and Oswald Spengler's work about when and why civilizations weaken and end. The latter critique was published posthumously by his friend, Richard Löwenthal. In his book, Borkenau drew a distinction between the "Latin" mentality of southern Europe (which also included France) and the "Germanic" mentality of northern Europe. Borkenau argued that German literature tended to celebrate individual "superman" heroes who achieved superhuman feats in battle while French literature did not. Borkenau used as an example the French epic poem Chanson de Roland, where the hero Roland, against the advice of his best friend Oliver, choses not ask for the readily available help of Charlemagne's army against a Muslim army invading from Spain. Borkenau noted that the result of Roland's vainglorious desire is his own death and the destruction of his own army, which was very different from how medieval German poets would had handled the story.

(Source: Wikipedia)